Cyanco is rolling out its new Automated Demand Sensing and Planning application for mine site tank monitoring! Comprised of on-site tank telemetry sensors and new software implemented on the Cyanco side, 70% of U.S. customers are already up and running on the new platform. The remaining 30% are awaiting installation of their tank sensors to enable full automation.

According to Logistics Coordinator, Veronica Cerda, the newly-automated data feed helps Cyanco keep product tanks full at all times, making sodium cyanide supply more worry-free than ever for our customers.

“Cyanco’s products are vital for mining operations,” said Veronica. “So, we never want customer tanks to get unexpectedly low – especially if they are located further away and the transit time is long. A missed delivery could cause a temporary shut-down of mining operations, costing customers time and money. On the flip side, we don’t want to schedule a delivery when tanks are already full, which results in a truck being redirected to another site or returned to Cyanco, wasting time and increasing costs for the customer or the company.

With our new automated system, we have a near real-time view of cyanide tank levels, so we can make adjustments each hour as necessary. If tank levels unexpectedly reach reorder points, for example, we may contact the customer to identify the reason for the level drop. Depending on what the customer tells us, we can quickly dispatch additional trucks to ensure cyanide supply meets the customer’s current need. We check the tank level before we dispatch a truck and, if the tank is not near their reorder point, we can delay scheduled shipments until that tank is closer to needing a top-off,” she added.

“Before this upgrade, our demand planning had a manual data entry component that sat between the customer data feed and our logistics process,” said Chinmay Dalvi, Cyanco Data Scientist and primary driver behind the new platform. “This limited us to a once-daily view – and interpretation – of customer usage rates. Using automated level transmission, we have reduced the number of truck redirects from 5% to less than 1%. Not only can we adjust dispatches throughout the day, we are saving our customers money in wasted shipment costs as well as reducing our carbon footprint with efficiency improvements to supply chain and logistics.”

According to the company’s newly-appointed COO, Michele Duttlinger, “When you’ve got the right technology alongside the right monitoring processes and an experienced staff, a true Vendor Managed Inventory (VMI) model becomes possible. VMI enables Cyanco to deliver a number of customer benefits including more customized service and supply, efficiency improvements – and most importantly, the seamless inventory flow of this critical reagent, so vital to uninterrupted operations.”

“It’s a real advantage to know your supplier is monitoring your tank levels, allowing your team to focus on mining operations,” Michele added. “Sites that used to call and check on shipments all the time, don’t call very much anymore. They know we’re on top of it – and they know that with Cyanco, they don’t have to worry.”